Leaving Her
by Salix
Meeting New People
[reviews]
Buffy had passed that interview with flying colors. They were now living in their apartment after buying two very comfortable beds. Their lives were starting to become very stable now. They had somewhat of a daily routine. Get up, get dressed, go to the Luke's go to work or school, Buffy would go home and change into some more comfortable clothes and meet Emily at the diner for dinner. It seemed that two other people held really close to the same routine. The two pretty girls that had witnessed Emily's rant last week.
Buffy still hadn't worked up the courage to talk to them, apparently the younger one didn't go to Emily's school and from what the teen has heard through gossip at the school she goes to a private school in Hartford. She hasn't really made any friends yet. She's decided to separate herself from the others and be a loner. She just doesn't want to make any new friends, at least not yet. It's just too soon for her to move on and forget about everything that was left behind in Sunnydale. She looks at that photo album every night before she goes to bed, like it's one of the children's books she used to force her parents to read to her before bedtime.
She misses everyone, her mom, Xander, Anya, Nicholas, Giles, Nikki, and her other friends Katie and Mark. She's doesn't miss them as much as the others because she hasn't known them for very long but she still misses them. She's very glad to be out of that Inn and living in the apartment, she was starting to feel homeless there for a couple of days. She allowed herself to not hate the town, and had to admit that it had a certain charm to her. She liked the people at the Inn, she thought that manager was insane and she couldn't for the life of her understand what the concierge is saying.
There's already a boy that she's been eyeing. Apparently he works at the diner, his uncle owns it or it something. Most of the people in the town don't like him very much and he's considered the 'bad seed' of the town. He's pulled some pranks and gotten into some trouble, nothing too heavy though. Petty theft and some other stuff, she can't really remember. According to the gossip at school he's a loner too who's in love with this girl named Rory but she's dating someone else so he just has to sit back and watch from afar. She couldn't help but notice that he's been checking her out the last couple of days and it's making her feel better about herself. In Sunnydale she was noticed because of her looks but she refused to become really popular, she refused to be the Cordelia of her time.
She also noticed that her mom has been eyeing someone as well. The manager at the Inn, her boss, who because the woman's her boss she won't really talk to her outside of work. Emily's grateful for that. It's too soon for her mom to be seeing someone anyway. She can already tell that she's going to be rude and mean probably even cruel to the people that her mother brings home in the future. She'll admit that her mom is relatively young and good looking, but that doesn't mean she's going to be open to her dating anyone. As soon as the dating process starts, she's decided she's going to start pushing to go back to Sunnydale. She doesn't think that either of her parents belong with anyone else, they're made for each other and she's going to keep it that way for as long as she can.
It was the Thursday of their second week in their new town. Buffy's still at work, something that's easy for her and she's actually enjoying. Emily's just sort of walking around the town. There's not much to do, there's nowhere to go that's fun or exciting, so she's decided that instead of fun and exciting she would have relaxing and soothing. After school she goes to the park and sits under the big oak tree next to the manmade pond. She'll read one of her books or do some homework but mostly she'll just sit and think. The thoughts range from her home back in Sunnydale, to the things she used to do with Nikki, to what she wants to be when she grows up.
So far no one has really made an effort to talk to her. If the gossip at school is correct then she's considered mysteries and maybe even a little dangerous. No one knows where she's from but they're guessing one of the larger cities in California, Oakland to be exact. She hasn't told them how insane she thinks they are and how far off they are with their assumptions. But on this day as she sat against the oak tree and watched the sun shine off of the water in the pond she looked up when she heard footsteps and saw a girl walking towards her. A girl holding two to-go cups of coffee and a smile on her face. She couldn't help but smile back as the girl got closer and she sat up a little straighter from her slouching position.
"Hi, um, I know that this is probably a little awkward, but I just wanted to officially welcome you to our town since it turns out you're not a guest at the Inn. Do you mind if I sit down?" she asked and Emily just nodded. The girl sat down next to her and then handed her a cup of coffee and looked into Emily's questioning eyes. "I noticed that you drink about as much coffee as my mom and me. Cream with two sugars right?" she asked and Emily smiled and nodded her head. She thought that maybe it was about time she started talking because she probably seemed really weird right about now.
"I'm Emily, and you are?" she asked and held out her hand for the girl to shake. So far things weren't too weird or awkward. She was actually glad for the human interaction. If she went another day with just talking to her insane mother then she thought that she would be joining her at the loony bin pretty soon. It's not that her mother isn't nice to talk to, it's just that she's crazy and Emily needs to talk to someone sane every once in a while to balance out the crazy with the not so crazy.
"Rory." They briefly shook hands and they started to sip at their coffee. Emily had no idea where to start with the conversation but luckily she didn't have to because it seems this Rory chick is pretty curious about the new residents of the town. "So, where are you from? I heard somewhere in California. That sounds nice, unless you were from a bad part of the state and you didn't like it." Emily smiled and tried not to chuckle at the girl's babbling. 'She's almost as bad as mom,' she thought, thinking about Willow for the billionth time that day.
"Yeah, I'm from the golden state, a little town called Sunnydale, about three hours south of L.A. It isn't as small as this town, but close enough, and I liked it there." She smiled and took another sip of her coffee. She wanted to avoid answering the questions like 'so why did you move here?' or 'is you just you and your mom' and 'how come what happened to your dad?' She would have to answer: because of a divorce, yes it's me and my mom, and I never had a dad, I have another mom. She really didn't want to answer those, but this girl seemed nice enough, so why not test the waters a little bit?
"So how come you two moved here? I mean, if you feel comfortable talking about it. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable especially if it was for a bad reason. Unless you don't care talking about it, then that's fine, I don't mind listening. I'm a really good listener. My mom thinks that if I don't become a journalist then I should become a shrink because I like listening to people's problems. Wait, that came out wrong. It's not like that I hearing about people's problems, it's just that I like to listen so that I can maybe help them. Yeah, I'm gonna shut up now." She ended the babble and took a very long sip of her coffee. Emily couldn't help but smile. She finally found someone who babbles about as fast her mom back in Sunnydale. It would be interesting to see those two in a conversation.
"It's alright. I haven't really talked about it before because no one's really asked, and I don't really want to talk about it with my mom because she's trying to be happy even though she's not. She and my other mom split up so we moved here," she said and then waited for the reaction. The one she got wasn't what she thought she was going to get. There was shock at first, then surprise but after that it wasn't really much. She just went back to the nervousness with some surprise.
"Oh, so they're..." she trailed off at the end. Emily got a little frustrated by it but she didn't say anything. This happens all the time, people are afraid for some reason to say the words that would describe her parents, almost like they're offensive or something. She controlled her temper and decided to give this girl a break because she's the only person who's tried to become her friend, at least since that first week of school. After she ignored all of the other kids they jus stopped trying.
"Gay? Yep. They're high school sweethearts, started dating their junior year, dated all through college, adopted me when they were like twenty-four, I was six. We lived in Rome for a while but then we moved back to Sunnydale. Things were great, couldn't be any better. Until my mom, the redheaded one you can just call her Red and the other one Blondie that's what all of my friends did to tell them apart in a conversation so they wouldn't get confused. Anyways, her company started to go down the drain and things are stressful. She found another job but it was just as bad. They started fighting a lot and finally my mom, Blondie, just couldn't take it anymore, so after two years of martial hell she packed up and we drove out here." She sounded like she didn't care. She made sure to keep her voice neutral because she didn't want to show her vulnerable side. Not very many people get to see that and she wasn't about show it to a stranger.
"Oh, sorry about all of that. It must've been hard. Is your mom, um Red? Going to be visiting you or you visit her or are you just completely cut off?" she asked and finished off the last of her coffee. Emily wasn't sure. She talked to her mom and was going to talk to her again on the phone and threw e-mails but she didn't really know anything about visitation. So she simply answered:
"I'm not sure. I want to go see her, or have her come here. She'd like it here. She always said that she likes small towns instead of big cities because big cities loose their charm after a while. I've always wanted to live in a large city though. When we lived in Rome there was always something to do or somewhere to go and I never got bored, but in Sunnydale it's like, there's only so much you can see before you run out town, ya know?" she asked and then took a sip of her coffee. She let the warm liquid linger in her mouth, she wished she had some rum to add to it, give it a little more bite. But she was going to try to do as her mom said and give up her bad habits. They sat there in silence for a few minutes and then Rory seemed to perk up a little bit.
"My mom and I are going to be ordering Chinese tonight, if you want to come over for dinner. You could bring your mom and we could all get to know each other a little bit. I don't mean to sound rude, but you haven't really been talking much to anyone and everybody is just so curious about you. And plus it sucks not having a friend when you're in a new place. When I started at my school I was a little scared and really nervous because I didn't know anyone and it was a while before I started to make friends. I'm fine being on my own, I would eat lunch by myself and read or listen to my Walkman, but I know how lonely it can get. So, what do you say?" she asked and looked a little excited. Emily smiled at her enthusiasm and decided to ignore most of the babble, and something hit her, a realization that she just this very second made.
"This town has a Chinese place?" she asked and Rory just laughed. The two walked over to Luke's and got more coffee and enjoyed some light conversation. After talking about her living situation now she really didn't want to talk about any more emotionally heavy stuff, and Rory seemed to pick up on that. They talked about school, career goals, boys, how crazy their moms are, and what it's like to live in small towns.
~~~
Buffy walked up the stairs to her apartment after work. It had been a nice day, pretty light workload. Working at the Inn was a lot better then she thought it was going to be. Her boss was nice, they got along, but the more Buffy got to know her the more she realized that she didn't want to be in a relationship with or use her for comfort sex. She could see them being friends, but she knew that they wouldn't survive as a couple.
She just wasn't Buffy's type, the only type Buffy has ever known is Willow, so she's still trying to figure out what she likes in a woman but all of that could be saved for another day. Probably one a few months, maybe even a year or more down the line when she starts to think about dating again. How long are you supposed to wait before you start dating again? It's not everyday that you split up with your high school sweetheart, and she's drawing a blank for that question.
She didn't find Emily anywhere but she did find a note that was taped to her bedroom door. It just simply read: Mom, we're having dinner tonight with some people that I met. The daughter is super nice and I think her mom is your boss. That won't be weird for you will it? Dinner is at seven, meet us at Luke's at six forty-five and we'll walk to their house, we're having Chinese. Love your one and only, Em.
Buffy groaned at the thought. She didn't know how she was going to get through this dinner. So far she and Lorelai, her boss, have almost nothing in common. In face, the only thing they seem to have in common is that they're both single moms. Buffy doesn't talk about her personal life at work, not that anyone has been too nosy. They've respected her space and kept things professional, which she appreciates. But when you have dinner at someone's house you're expected to answer personal questions so that they can get to know you more, and she doesn't want her boss to get freaked out by something that Buffy says and then treat her different at work.
She changed into some jeans and a t-shirt and washed her face. She then added some make-up, keeping it light, but still enough to make her look nice. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door. If she left now and walked fast then she might be five minutes late. She locked the door and put away all of her negative thoughts as she walked down the stairs and towards Luke's Diner. She found the two teens waiting for her in front of the diner. They were talking and she actually saw Emily laugh. That's something she hasn't seen her do in a few months. They greeted each other and introductions were made and they headed to the Gilmore residence.
Buffy was impressed. The house was huge and very beautiful. The inside was just as nice, but it definitely has the Lorelai touch. Nothing matched and everything just seemed like organized ciaos, but it was nice. Things weren't as awkward as she thought they were going to be. The two Gilmores were friendly and easy to get along with, plus Lorelai didn't talk about work at all. They had ordered a lot of food, at least enough for eight people. They said that they could eat a lot and usually eat most of the food one night and then live off of the leftovers for the following week. Then Lorelai made a joke about how skinny Buffy is and said something about her being able to eat only one egg roll. That's when Buffy's slayer side started to kick in. It's thrives on competition and Buffy smiled evilly on the inside. She was going to show Ms. Gilmore exactly how much a slayer can eat.
"I cannot believe you had an entire meal for three by yourself. Do you always eat like that? You're so damn skinny how do you do it?" Lorelai asked after dinner. The dishes had been put in the sink, the daughters were in Rory's room checking out her book collection, so the moms were sitting on the living room couch, sipping from their beer bottles and enjoying each other's company. Buffy was glad that she had come to dinner, she's actually enjoying herself for the first time in a long time.
"I don't know. I always eat a lot, I guess I just have a fast metabolism. So, what do you usually do around here? Doesn't seem like much to do with this town being so small. How do you stay entertained?" she asked and took a swig of the Heineken. She used her slayer hearing to pay attention to both Lorelai and in the girls. While Lorelai was going on and on about how funny it is to watch Taylor Doose and Luke get into an argument, she was also listening while her daughter talked about some boy named Jess, and compared him to another boy named James. Both of which she did not know.
"And then on Fridays we drive up to Hartford to have dinner with my parents. Not my first pick for entertainment, I think I'd rather be lit on fire then sit through a family dinner, but it's nice for Rory to spend time with her grandparents. So, are you close with your parents?" she asked, the alcohol making her a little more nosy and blunt then normal. Buffy thought about the question and it didn't take that long to come up with an answer.
"I was close with my mom, but she died when I was in my sophomore year at college. I'm not close with my dad at all. Haven't talked to him since high school. He cheated on my mom so we moved from L.A. to Sunnydale, haven't talked to him since." She was surprised that she was being so honest, she usually doesn't talk about family matters but she decided that it was all right. It's ok to let your guard down every once in a while, she might as well sit back and enjoy it. As long as they got back to happier topics soon then she would be fine, at least emotionally.
"Is that what happened with you?" she heard the brunette woman asked. She was a little surprised and confused by the question. At first she wasn't sure what Lorelai meant so she gave her a confused look. The brunette turned serious and then looked down at Buffy's left hand. More specifically looked at Buffy's left ring finger that had the diamond engagement ring with a white gold band and then the white gold wedding band that had the words 'forever and ever' on the inside of it. The little phrase had once been a cute thing to say for the now separated lovers. Buffy can still remember talking to Willow about their relationship and the redhead would always say that they would be together forever and ever. "You got the rings but you haven't mentioned a husband, so I just assumed you weren't together anymore." Buffy took another drink of her beer, finishing off the bottle.
"It's not husband, it was wife, and no we're not together anymore. She didn't cheat, she just worked too much," Buffy said and then set the now empty bottle on the coffee table. She watched as Lorelai first looked confused, and then the realization of what Buffy had said hit her like a train, but then she went from surprised back to relaxed, like it was just another thing, no big deal. Which it isn't, and Buffy was glad that the woman was understanding, or at least drunk enough to not care right now. "It's getting late, I have work, and Emily has school. So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." They stood up off of the couch. Buffy felt bad for leaving the conversation on a bad note, but she needed to get home, she was getting pretty tired. She called for Emily and the two Gilmores walked them to the door and then they walked home. They were both glad that they had gone to dinner because they had both been feeling a little lonely and now they had least had someone, other then each other, to talk to when they needed to talk.
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Bet you can't guess who I'm gonna hook Buffy up with. I'll give you a couple of clues, it is nobody from the Gilmore Girls show, they are from Buffy. there, that's all you get.